I did a 5-6 gallon batch of strawberry wine and it cost me mess than 30
bucks. I did have all the chems i needed though. Check the farmers markets
for great prices on fresh fruit. just my 2cents.

joe

"SWalters" > wrote in message
...
> Joe wrote:
>
> > I use my 6.5gallon carboys for making wine. I start my wine in a big
> > bucket for the first 3-7 days then rack over to the 6.5gallon carboy.
> > I have heard of people using there CO2 to purge the air out of the
> > carboy, racking, then with low pressure purging the air again. Since
> > the yeast is still active it will just push it right out. I racked a
> > strawberry wine today from the bucket to the carboy and i didnt use my
> > co2. Within 5 minutes of attaching my airlock it was active again. I
> > started out at 1.090 and racked at 1.010 (a little late) but it is
> > still active as hell. I went all grain so i am using carboys for wine
> > and beer kegs (15.5 & 7.75gallon) for beer.
>
> thanks for the reply. I am going to jsut go ahead and use the 6.5 for the
> wine. I just wanted to make sure the little .5 gallon of headspace is as
> unimportant in wine as it is in beer brewing. The blanket of CO2 keeps
> everything inline.
>
> I'm probably going to start with a $90 kit with some oak chips in my
> Cabernet, Merlot, or Cabernet/Merlot. I have yet to buy the kit but will
> after my next two brews.
>
> --
> -=SW=-